I first discovered Welcome to Night Vale during one of my many endless scroll sessions on Tumblr. I kept seeing Night Vale fan art, so I downloaded the podcast and well, my life hasn’t been the same since.

If you don’t know…

“WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE is a twice-monthly podcast in the style of community updates for the small desert town of Night Vale, featuring local weather, news, announcements from the Sheriff’s Secret Police, mysterious lights in the night sky, dark hooded figures with unknowable powers, and cultural events.”

The writing is quite brilliant and very very strange. There’s a heavy H.P. Lovecraft influence except it’s light on the serious and heavy on the funny (despite the odd and terrifying events that happen in Night Vale).

The Night Vale fan community is filed with some of the most creative people I’ve encountered in any fandom. I originally just wanted to share a few pieces of fan art but somehow ended up with 50… whoops!

“It seems that all over Night Vale, books have simply ceased functioning. The scientists are studying one of the broken books to see if they can understand just what is going on here. The exact problem is currently unclear, but some of the words being used include ‘sparks,’ ‘meat smell,’ ‘biting,’ and ‘lethal gas.’ For your own safety, please do not attempt to open a book until we have more information on the nature and cause of these problems.”
– Welcome to Night Vale Episode Three “Station Management” By purinrinrin

The chestburster Alien necklace from Cthulhu Wake Up Etsy shop is everything you didn’t know you wanted. Although I can’t lie, I’m always a bit nervous saying the Etsy shop name out loud. Not trying to cause the end of days or anything…

The Xenomorph necklace pretty much speaks for itself, but I’ll say a little about it either way. I know in fashion they talk about statement necklaces, but I doubt they even had this deadly beauty mind. The chestburster is masterfully crafted from pewter and sits perfectly on top of your chest, all a-burstin’.

I had the chance to interview Luis about his gorgeously gruesome jewelry only to find out he has a pretty impressive day job! He’s a vfx artist and has worked in movies like Green Lantern, GI Joe 2, Riddick and more. (Which explains why the craftsmanship on the pendents are damn near perfect.)

My name is Luis Alberto Cayo, I have been a a vfx artist for 5 years working in movies like “Gi Joe 2”, “Riddick”, “Green Lantern”, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter”, among others (www.cayovfx.com). Although I enjoy working for these big projects I also want a venue were I can share my own voice and jewelry is a perfect fit for me.

How did Cthulhu Wake Up come to be?

Practicing digital sculpture in my own time, I came up with the Cthulhu pendant and I really wanted to do something with it. I put it up in kickstarter and raised money to make 150 of them. I was thrilled not only that I was able to share my personal work but to make some money along the way too. After that I decided to work towards making a side business of it. Unfortunately, I can’t work as fast as I would like to towards that goal but I’m getting there!

How long on average does it take you to make a piece?

Is a fluid process really. Going back and forward, doing drawings and sculptures. Because I made a point to make it as fun and freestyle as possible I can’t track it that much. 3 days would be my best guess.

I love the idea of the chest-bursting alien necklace, what inspired that piece?

It just popped in my head and made me laugh. It made sense as it looks like is bursting out so I said, why not?

What draws you to Lovecraft’s work? Do you have a favorite story?

Lovecraft is an excellent story teller. Modern storytelling is VERY rushed and the plot needs to be moving along always. Rarely movies, comic books, and TV shows slow down to take the attention from the story and spend some time building an atmosphere and taking us places emotionally. Lovecraft does this very successfully without being boring at all, not to mention he does it only with words! Of course he is not the only one that does this, there are great moder storytellers as well but no one tackles the weird mix of science fiction, fantasy and horror any more, not the way he does.

I have many favorite stories from him. Starting to “The Call of Cthulhu”, “The Shadow out of Time”, “The Whisperer in the Darkness”, and many others.

Do you have any (other) geeky obsessions? If so what?

Many others, Dragon Ball Z and Batman being the most prominent. One of my long term goals is to write a Batman story. I love steampunk and enjoy watching cosplay.

If you were on a deserted island what video game, comic/book, movie, TV show would you bring?

Above all I would prefer an sketchbook and a ballpoint pen with everlasting ink. Video game: Street fighter 3, Comicbook: The Dark Knight Returns, TV shows: Batman, the Animated Series.

Today’s Tattoo Tuesday are a tribute to infamous horror/fantasy/sci-fi/weird fiction author H.P. Lovecraft and of course everyone’s favorite cosmic entity Cthulhu! I’m a big fan of Lovecraft’s work, although many are dense and difficult to get through, the mythos he created are so fascinating. You find yourself immersed in his cosmic and dream worlds you forget where you are, well at least I do. I think the best, and worst part, is that his stories are told like accounts, which are frightening believable. Speaking of believable, while searching for these tattoos I found a few Elder Sign tats, which I suppose is a good idea because when the Deep Ones come along, they will be protected and the rest of us… well, not so much.

I included all the information about the tattoo that was available. If you are interested in having me feature your geeky tattoo on a future Tattoo Tuesdayfeel free to email me at girlgonegeekblog[at]gmail.com.

“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn“

“Escher, Lovecraft, Tolkien, and her mom. The full piece was designed by a friend and then Anna got it inked by Attilio Capra at Il Pellerossa. The tattoo is based on the “Haunter in the dark” story from Lovecraft, with the geometrical crystal pictured as one of Escher’s solids. Also inside there is the Quenya word “amil” which means “mother”. (via GeekyTattoos)”